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I am so EXCITED about this post because it’s about a pencil sharpener. Yes, you read that correctly. So, what’s the big deal? Well, as you know I have two budding artist in my household plus a niece and nephew who love to write and draw as well. A good sharpener is a must have! Enter the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener, which I received the opportunity to test out and share my review with you guys.

The Classroom Friendly Sharpener is owned and operated by an elementary school teacher so they know first hand how important a good sharpener is.

I followed the instructions provided on the online store website and within seconds had a wonderful sharpened pencil. Check out my results:

Bring the silver face of the sharpener forward until it clicks into place. Then pinch the two black knobs on the top together and slide the pencil into the sharpener. You don’t have to hold onto the pencil. Finally turn the handle (not shown in this picture, but there’s a picture below where you can see the handle) clockwise and sharpen away. Pinch the two black knobs to release the pencil.

It doesn’t get any better than that. Look at that point. Perfection and easy! Also the Classroom Friendly Sharpener is much quieter than my electric sharpener, which by the way I haven’t used since getting this one! 🙂

Now let’s try a color pencil:

Brilliant! I’m very impressed with this machine!

The compartment that holds the pencil shavings is easy to remove and clean out!

Needless to say my girls (ages 6 and 9) went crazy when they came home and saw their brand new sharpener. They went searching for all the pencils that needed to be sharpened and were so impressed with how easy it was to use the sharpener and amazed with the final results.

As you can see in the above picture the Classroom Friendly Sharpener has a handle that you turn clockwise to do the sharpening and it can be mounted for a permanent spot (mounts are available for purchase in the online store).

A pencil sharpener is an essential tool for learning so this sharpener would be a great gift for teachers, schools, friends and family members. You can even buy them in bundle specials in the online store and donate them! 🙂

Click on the picture below for instructions on How to Operate the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener.

Happy Holidays everyone and take good care!

Until next time…

Disclaimer: I received a free product in exchange for my honest review and I was not compensated.

Update: I have decided to join the Affiliate Program with the Classroom Friendly Supplies Pencil Sharpener so if you decide to purchase this awesome sharpener after reading my review on it just click on this link below and I’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Thank you so much for visiting my blog and hopefully purchasing one or more of this wonderful product.

Since Halloween is just around the corner here’s a quick DIY costume accessories idea for Wonder Woman.

I made these headpieces and wrist cuffs for my daughters who wanted something simple to wear on Superhero day at their school. They wore a plain blue shirt and jeans so the accessories would pop out more. They didn’t want to do the typical cape and mask thing so I found a good template online for Wonder Woman’s headband and got to work.

Using the template to get the design, I folded the felt in half to make it sturdier with two layers of felt as oppose to just a single layer. I glued the headpiece at the edges with some tacky glue and then made the stars with a template and red felt. I then glued the headpiece onto the plain headband. The tacky glue doesn’t dry instantly so I used large paperclips to secure the felt onto the headband until it dried. It worked like a charm. For the wrist cuffs I simply cut out a long rectangular piece from the yellow felt and split it in half. I then glued the stars in the middle and sewed on a small piece of elastic so they could slide it onto their wrist and have fun pretending to be Wonder Woman, which they did.

At the library you can always find me searching through the new titles in the children’s section. I love picking books that are going to teach and show my children something different. I want them to know and understand different topics including families that aren’t your typical mom and dad. I don’t shy away from books that deal with topics that are deemed controversial. For me, if it’s age appropriate and tackles the topic in a respectable and loving manner, then I’m checking the book out and reading it with my children.

The “My Family” picture books by Claudia Harrington was a great find at the library. I was quickly drawn to them and super excited. I didn’t think twice about putting them in the check out pile. I was able to find 3 titles out of the 6 in the series.

by Claudia Harrington, Illustrated by Zoe Persico

Here’s a brief synopsis of these titles above: Lenny is the class reporter in these books and he follows his classmates home for a school project. He learns about Elsie and her life with her two moms, Connor and his life with his dad and military mom, and Jasmine and her life with her two dads.

These are the other three book titles in the series.

Honestly, what I loved the most about these books is the innocence that is conveyed through the character’s story of who does what within their families respectively. Each character’s way of life is what they’re accustomed to and they can’t wait to share it with their friend. I loved that!

I highly recommend these books. You should check them out at your local library and if they don’t have it, request it!

Last week we celebrated all things great of Dr. Seuss with book readings, poems, and special activities that included wearing a hat to school (crazy or favorite), Dr. Seuss colors (black, white, and red), pajamas, and our favorite, crazy hair. Of course, my daughters were super excited, especially my young one because it was going to be her very first crazy hair day at school.

I wanted to do something special, but keep things simple at the same time. This is what we came up with:

We decided to turn a hair bun into a birdie’s nest by taking brown, tan, and green pipe cleaners and twisting them around the bun so they could look like twigs and leaves. Then we stuck several feathers in and last but definitely not least, the main attraction was these little paper birdies that we found at AC Moore craft store. It was easy to attach the birds onto the bun because the birds already had a metal hair clip.

Of course, these buns can be decorated more and taken to another level, but like I said before, I wanted to keep things simple. My girls were super happy with the results (mission accomplish!) and ready to participate in crazy hair day.

I’m a strong believer in giving to charities that will help people and animals in need. I donate to charities like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital , Autism Speaks, Feeding America, PETA and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has a student series and I’m proud that schools in my area are participating with this campaign. I set up a page and you can click on the link below. Any donation and I mean any is greatly, hugely appreciated! THANK YOU!

I’m continuing with my book finds because it’s very dear to me. My girls and I love juvenile chapter book series and when we sit down to read a book with chapters before bedtime we usually read one or a couple of chapters every night until we’re done with the book. This allows us time to read several other easy to read or picture books before lights out. I strive to read up to three books per night depending on how long each book is.

The first book series that we fell in love with was on a summer reading list and we quickly found it at the library.

As soon as we finished the first book of these two fun-loving and mischievous friends, we couldn’t wait to check out book #2. The series, so far, goes up to book #10, which left my daughters baffled and in despair for book #11.

“But why isn’t there a book 11?” they asked me and I said, “Because the author probably hasn’t finished writing it. We have to be patient and find another series to read in the meantime.”

And that’s exactly what we did.

Sophie Mouse to the rescue!

The Adventures of Sophie Mouse

by Poppy Green, Illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell

We stumbled upon this wonderful book series at the library when my youngest daughter spotted a nickname version of her own name on the front cover of the book. They absolutely go bonkers whenever they see their names on the front cover of books.

This series is a great introduction to chapter books. It’s completely adorable and there are beautiful black and white illustrations within the book. The stories are endearing and the main character, Sophie Mouse, is an artist who simply loves adventures and sharing them with her dear friends, Hattie Frog and Owen Snake. So far the series is up to book 6, but book 7 has a release date for this year so I’ll be requesting a hold on a copy at my library so my girls and I can get a chance to read it as soon as possible. We can’t wait!

I highly recommend these books. You should check them out at your local library and if they don’t have it, request it!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and at my daughter’s school they did something pretty cool this year. They wanted their students to decorate and bring in a valentine holder for their valentine cards and treats.

My kindergartener and I decided to decorate an empty graze snack box (graze.com) because it was already partially decorated for Valentine’s Day (red hearts) and it was the perfect size to transform into a purse/clutch valentine holder! 🙂

We just added my daughter’s name in the front (covering the graze name) along with some 3D valentine stickers

and glued a piece of purple construction paper in the back and decorated it with a variety of stickers.

I secured the box with a little bit of clear tape and made a slot, which we decorated with a fabric, flower ribbon, for the valentine cards and treats to go in.

We recycled the clear plastic backing, which you can probably see in the first 2 pics, of the glitter tape decoration that we placed around the box (not shown in the pics) for the purse strap. I then showed my daughter how she could hold the box two ways: as a clutch with her hand or a shoulder purse with the strap. The giddiness that ensued after transforming that box into her valentine holder will stay with me forever. 🙂

As for my third grader, she had a vision and it involved one of her favorite cartoon characters, SpongeBob Squarepants. She loves that little dude!

She didn’t want to do plain, old SpongeBob though. No, she wanted to make SpongeBob in his Kuddly Krab work uniform. This uniform is featured in the episode titled “Bossy Boots.”

We printed out some pics of SpongeBob wearing the uniform so we could easily reference it.

I also made a template of the purple flower design that’s on the uniform so my daughter could easily trace, cut, and glue the design onto the box.

The materials we used were a cereal box, construction paper (pink, yellow, purple, white, and neon green card stock paper), and pipe cleaners. We also printed out a small spatula and a “Krabby Patty,” which we taped onto his hands.

From a cereal box to “Kuddly Krab SpongeBob Squarepants!”

Here’s the breakdown: We gift wrapped the box with pink construction paper using tape and glue. My daughter traced a big circle out of yellow construction paper for his face and two small circles for his eyes with white paper as well as two little squares for his front teeth. She then drew the details herself. She used the template for the purple flower designs and we glued those down as well as his face. The pipe cleaners were used to make the antennas, arms, legs, socks, and shoes. She wanted to place two pink hearts on the antennas instead of the red K’s. For his yellow hands I copy and pasted a picture of SpongeBob and cropped the pic until his hands were the only things on the screen, then printed and glued onto the pipe cleaner. We did the image two sided so it was easier to glue. A slot at the top of the box ensures that valentine cards and treats will go in nicely!

A couple of months ago, my youngest daughter stumbled upon this book at the library and was fascinated with the front cover.

“Just Being Audrey” by Margaret Cardillo, Illustrated by Julia Denos

She simply said, “She’s beautiful,” and I responded, “She sure is.”

Of course, this biography book for children made it to our checkout pile and my daughters were wonderfully introduced to Audrey Hepburn. The illustrations inside were just as beautiful as the front cover. What made this book even more fantastic for me was when I suggested to my youngest daughter that she should draw her own version of the front cover and her eyes immediately lit up at the idea (my oldest daughter loves to draw and my youngest loves emulating her sister, so she’s a little budding artist as well.) The very next morning she sat down on the floor with her drawing pad, a pencil and the Audrey book. Her concentration was fierce and it took all morning. I gave her space and didn’t peek once.

Finally, she was ready to unveil her masterpiece.

Needless to say, I was one proud mama and I couldn’t stop gushing over her drawing. She did a great job! 🙂

A book that teaches you about a great person and has illustrations that can inspire a 5 year old to draw her own version is a definite gemstone. Check it out at your local library and if they don’t have it, request it!

One of my absolute favorite places to visit in our hometown is the library. We officially celebrated our one year anniversary living in Pennsylvania back in November of 2015. The library here is completely different in so many wonderful ways. The vast hours of operation offers us an opportunity to visit as a complete family. The children’s section of the library is spacious, it’s equipped with touch screen computers, educational toys, and hard-covered books galore. I was so impressed and immediately fell in love with this place.

Before we leave the library, we always check out almost 40 books, which include a variety of easy to read, picture, newly published, and juvenile chapter books. It’s become a routine to read a couple of books every night before bedtime so we need a lot of material. My girls usually pick the books that they want and I tend to add to that pile with my picks for them. My youngest is in Kindergarten now and she loves easy to read books. She also loves picture books, which is why she was immediately drawn to the cover of this particular book:

“Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: A Muslim Book of Colors” by Hena Khan, Illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini

She wasn’t able to read the title. She simply saw the beautiful cover and quickly glanced inside and saw the rest of the illustrations and wanted to take it home. When I read the title, I’m not going to lie to you, the word Muslim jumped right at me, but I had no qualms about checking the book out. In fact, I was curious to see and read the book. It looked interesting and it was indeed a great book with beautiful illustrations of colors in the Muslim culture. I had no idea, until recently when I went online searching for a picture of this book to include in my blog post, that this book had a little controversy behind it. You can google the title of this book and read the article about a father in Georgia who wasn’t happy that his daughter picked this book out at the school book fair. Yes, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but believe me when I say that this book is a beautifully, illustrated book about colors in the Muslim culture. You should check it out at your local library and make your own opinion about it. And if they don’t have it, request it!

I will be sharing more book finds with you because there are so many books in this world that need to be acknowledged and praised. I love reading to my girls and hearing them read out loud. I have seen great results in their reading skills from their first marking period in school to the second, which just passed about a week ago. My third grader is currently reading at a fifth grade level and my five year old went from reading zero sight words to 59.

my daughters reading at the library

I’m going to leave you with this little tidbit regarding instructions/directions usually found at the bottom of homework assignments or school worksheets like this for example:

Instead of just reading the directions to your child and doing the problems together, teach your child to read the instructions as well and make it a habit. Read the directions for each problem together and eventually they will learn how to read it themselves.

A lot has happened since my last post, which was back in April of this year.

Here’s the rundown:

1. My sister and her fiancé announced they were expecting their first child!!!

Congrats Dave and Monchie!!

2. My youngest daughter turned 4 years old and we had a party at the bowling alley! The theme was Peppa Pig and my husband made her TWO cakes! Yes, my hubby made those cakes you see below!

Two Peppa Pig cakes

3. My daughter received a certificate in her school for writing an essay on the most special woman in her life. She chose to write about her Grandma Rose (my mom, Rosa).

The essay read: A remarkable woman in my life is my Grandma Rose. She’s a very brave and strong woman. She became ill a few years ago and isn’t able to walk without her crutches, but she recently surprised us by walking without them by using her special brace on her right leg. This was very exciting for me. I held her hand and we walked together. It’s a memory that we now share.

(That’s a black and white copy of the original above. My daughter drew the picture and asked my mom if she could send her a picture of her wearing the brace so she could draw it. My daughter gave my mom the original for Mother’s Day.)

4. My oldest daughter turned 7 years old and we had another party at the same bowling alley! The theme was the Minions from the movie, “Despicable Me” and this time around the cake was store bought (yeah, we got lazy, but the cake was still yummy).

The birthday girl and her Minion cake!

5. My daughter successfully completed the first grade!

Summer vacation begins!

6. We went to see the New York Yankees play against the Toronto Blue Jays!

My youngest strikes up the funniest poses! 🙂

7. We went on vacation for a week with family to a Pocono resort, The Villas at Tree Tops. We had a lot of fun and great memories were created.

8. Final days of the summer were spent going to the library and spending time with family, then it was back to school!

My oldest entered the second grade and I’m keeping my youngest with me at home, even though she can enter Pre-K, but I’ll rather have that time teaching her myself and having fun together before she officially goes off to school next year.

So that’s the recap and there are so many things in the horizon, for example, we’re preparing to move (yikes, more on that later on), a Halloween themed baby shower as well as a destination wedding next year in beautiful Puerto Rico. Oh boy! or girl…it’s a surprise, due in November. We can’t wait and I hope to be a better blogger!